Miguel Miranda (with sons David and Juan), a 37-year-old migrant farm worker who also works part-time in a Mexican restaurant as a cook is no stranger to hard work. He often works 7 days a week earning minimum wage to help support his wife and two small children. However, he has stopped working temporarily because his wife is in the hospital battling cancer. “I have to be the mother and the father right now.” Miranda rents a small room from his father-in-law, but he says the relationship is tense and he doesn’t have any other family members that he can rely on for emotional support. His children have become withdrawn at school and Miranda feels pressure to return to work.

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"Included in this group [the underrclass] are individuals who lack training and skills and either experience long-term unemployment or are not members of the labor force, individuals who are engaged in street crime and other forms of aberrant behavior, and families that experience long-term spells of poverty and/or welfare dependency."

- The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy, by William Julius Wilson